A thread on reddit offers an email purportedly from BioWare support informing the recipient of unspecified sanctions in Star Wars: The Old Republic, saying this was for accessing areas and loot meant for higher level characters in the just-launched MMORPG. There's a follow-up post on The Old Republic forums pointing out some discrepancies like typos and other issues that suggest this is not a legitimate email. There's also a post on Rock, Paper, Shotgun suggesting this may be a legitimate ban, and the player who was banned omitted details about how this was more of an exploit than described. Thanks Joao.

Holy shit warned for "playing" the auction house? You mean my early WoW strategy of buying all the cotton is illegal in swtor?

BTW: was not legit in wow ether, my mate got banned for "cornering the market" believe it or not

Nah, it was absolutely legit in WoW, a bunch of us helped a guy in our guild hit the gold cap doing it even. We made sure to ask some GMs first even. He got reported all the time by competition and people angry about prices, nothing ever happened.

Dev wrote on Jan 2, 2012, 09:24:Actually if you do a little research you'll find most states have archaic obsolete laws that are still on the books, and some are worse than that. Lawmakers seldom bother to repeal past laws regardless of how silly they are, they are too busy trying to think up new ridiculous ones.

Yeh, there are some real old / wacky ones out there. A quick Google for a source found me www.dumblaws.com

Some random New Jersey ones...

It is illegal to delay or detain a homing pigeon.

It is against the law for a man to knit during the fishing season.

All motorists must honk before passing another car, bicyclist, skater, and even a skateboarder.

It's illegal to wear a bullet proof vest while committing a murder.

But all states have them. Some of them are hi... lar.. ious.

Texas: Up to a felony charge can be levied for promoting the use of, or owning more than six dildos.

Georgia: The term “sadomasochistic abuse” is defined so broadly, that it could possibly be applied to a person handcuffing another in a clown suit.

Kentucky: One may not dye a duckling blue and offer it for sale unless more than six are for sale at once.

Kansas: No one may sing the alphabet on the streets at night.

This comment was edited on Jan 2, 2012, 16:26.

"Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you." -Fry, Futurama

Respen wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 17:28:Dropping F bombs; at least in front of women and children is still illegal in this state

In front of women? That's hilarious. Are women going to get the vapors if their delicate and frail minds are subjected to swearing? Jane Austen novels are fine and all but not really a realistic model for laws in this day and age.

Actually if you do a little research you'll find most states have archaic obsolete laws that are still on the books, and some are worse than that. Lawmakers seldom bother to repeal past laws regardless of how silly they are, they are too busy trying to think up new ridiculous ones.

Cutter wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 15:01:If I recall I think I got a warning about swearing in the beta. Blew my mind. I asked them wtf the chat filter was for in that case. Yet another reason this game is doomed.

Cutter, every MMO out there even with a filter will tell you it's still not OK to swear in their games with exception to Age of Conan.

I don't know what games you've been playing but every MMO chat I've ever seen has been totally blue.

He just said he's practically played all of them. Derp?

Just because there is a filter, does not mean it's okay to swear. The filter is technology hiding your mistake of swearing on top of punishing you for swearing.

Oh, and once you grow up, you'll learn that a swear filter is STILL offensive.

theyarecomingforyou wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 20:35:Solution? Ban the player for one week and during that time fix the exploit. As for the foul language, they need to either employ a filter or ignore it - it's clearly not abusive and therefore should be tolerated, especially in private chat. But banning people for using foul language is unacceptable, just like banning people from playing games for forum comments is unacceptable.

Cutter wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 21:53:Haha! Sucks to be you, hey fanboy? It must really hurt that I'm right most of the time. You need to stay far away from any sort of career in investing or anything remotely related to the future for that matter. It's what makes your nick so ironic lol!

Yeah, you were spot on about Rift going free to play in 6 months. I remember you touting that one on a regular basis about a year ago. You're a regular fucking psychic.

Seriously, you're like a broken record with these games. It's always the same thing.

1. There are interestingly enough no dates assigned to any of these warnings. In one instance, the date is actually scribbled out. There is also not enough information to actually track down the validity of any of these accusations.

2. The warnings are particularly vague. In the first instance, if a level 10 PC was running around equipped with level 50 equipment, that's an exploit and deserving of the banhammer. In the second case, if someone is buying and selling 100 times a minute on the auction house, odds are they are using bots, exploits, or other "solutions".

If you go over to "whywasibanned.com" you see plenty of people who have excellent stories/excuses, and are caught red-handed modding or exploiting. I am far more willing to suspect users of illegitimate use than EA banning people over normal usage.

Same goes for the swearing in general chat. Dropping F bombs; at least in front of women and children is still illegal in this state, a short ban is nothing to scream at Bioware about; Blizzard does the same thing after all.

Isn't that what language filters are for? Unlike real-life, you can filter out swearing in text chat. No need to ban anyone.

I actually got into an argument about this with a WoW GM a few years ago when I had gotten a 24 hour ban for using profanity in trade chat. I appealed the ban and the GM basically told me that the profanity filter doesn't matter, they still don't condone profanity in public channels.

As for "flipping" ... that is pretty much all the 50s do at Ilum anyway. You do get pvp rewards for participating in Ilum, but with the majority of the population still not 50, there isn't much to do there other than trade bases with the opposing faction to complete your daily quest.

Same goes for the swearing in general chat. Dropping F bombs; at least in front of women and children is still illegal in this state, a short ban is nothing to scream at Bioware about; Blizzard does the same thing after all.

Isn't that what language filters are for? Unlike real-life, you can filter out swearing in text chat. No need to ban anyone.

Not a fan of games that don't ban people who obviously cheating...wow is pretty bad about letting it go on for months.

But also not a fan of games that ban for things you are capable of doing in the game that may be unintended or overlooked but still capable of doing them. Especially if they do not warn you IN GAME about it. Having to read forums and emails to find out you are walking on the wrong path and they'd prefer you use the other is not a good way to do things.

Cutter wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 15:01:Yet another reason this game is doomed.

If the game designers got a nickel for every time you said that about an MMO they wouldn't need the subscription fees.

Haha! Sucks to be you, hey fanboy? It must really hurt that I'm right most of the time. You need to stay far away from any sort of career in investing or anything remotely related to the future for that matter. It's what makes your nick so ironic lol!

"There are two kinds of people in this world; people who love delis, and people you shouldn’t associate with.” - Damon Runyan

Respen wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 17:28:Dropping F bombs; at least in front of women and children is still illegal in this state

In front of women? That's hilarious. Are women going to get the vapors if their delicate and frail minds are subjected to swearing? Jane Austen novels are fine and all but not really a realistic model for laws in this day and age.

It's a law, yeah it's ridiculous... but it's been enforced in Michigan several times in the last 10 years and it always makes headlines because it is extreme. I don't deny that it's silly, nor do I support it. I'm just using it as an example to signify that Bioware is respecting local laws/traditions and imo smart for doing so by not allowing cursing in general chat.

Nothing is more annoying to me than walking into a general chat in an mmo filled with racial slurs and f bombs.

Respen wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 17:28:[...]Again: This is the internet. The internet is not a really a "state" or something like that so I'd recommend to drop these archaic ideas and embrace a more modern approach.

SWTOR takes place within my and other "states" which have laws.... like it or not. Weather or not you agree that Bioware should be held accountable to uphold these laws is moot, it's a smart aproach on their part to respect them. Regardless of weather or not you agree with me, I applaud the fact that BIOWARE enforces common decency in it's general chat, even if I do swear like a sailor in tells.

I'm guessing even in your "civilised" part of the world, it's not socially acceptable to swear in front of children.

Respen wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 17:28:Dropping F bombs; at least in front of women and children is still illegal in this state

In front of women? That's hilarious. Are women going to get the vapors if their delicate and frail minds are subjected to swearing? Jane Austen novels are fine and all but not really a realistic model for laws in this day and age.

The player was exploiting the game and should be punished for doing so. The exploits shouldn't exist to allow the player to do it. Both sides are at fault.

Solution? Ban the player for one week and during that time fix the exploit. As for the foul language, they need to either employ a filter or ignore it - it's clearly not abusive and therefore should be tolerated, especially in private chat. But banning people for using foul language is unacceptable, just like banning people from playing games for forum comments is unacceptable.

Respen wrote on Jan 1, 2012, 17:28:[...] Dropping F bombs; at least in front of women and children is still illegal in this state, [...]

And thankfully such censorship is not common in the more civilised parts of the world.Again: This is the internet. The internet is not a really a "state" or something like that so I'd recommend to drop these archaic ideas and embrace a more modern approach.

Yeah, it pretty much sucks that Ilum PVP is nonexistent and all the level 50s (including myself) end up doing is waiting around for someone of the opposite faction to get there and complete their daily quest of "helping the war effort" so that they can get it done, too. It's such a pain in the ass because there are usually no more than a dozen people from each faction on the whole planet (which also has daily PVE in an area larger than the open PVP one), and it's so big that it takes several minutes to travel between the objectives with the fastest mount you can get. You usually won't even see anybody else, even if you know they're there capping points, too.

Still, while I have been guilty of ignoring combat with the enemy just to get it over with, I wouldn't expect to be shown leniency if I'm reported as wholly exploiting things by coordinating repeated objective trading with the enemy faction. I've heard plenty of people making alts on the opposite faction, leveling them up to 15 or so to get their ship, and then traveling to Ilum strictly to facilitate that (which really shouldn't be possible, I mean they limit access to other locations based on level or quest, so why not this?).

And that's what would have had to happen for this guy to get caught, if the story is even legit; this guy was [rightly] reported for inappropriate player behavior, exploiting game mechanics (broken as they may be). I'd be glad just to know they actually take action on that kind of stuff, as on my server there's this douchebag that AFKs through PVP instances to farm the rewards with no effort at all. Tons of people have reported him, I've gotten no response in days, even after updating the ticket whenever I see him doing it, but yet he's still around...